Blade sharpener



Dec. 1, 1970 J. J. KILIAN 3,543,446

BLADE SHARPENER Filed June 21, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 HG. j.

INVENTOR J 660/146 J {/4 MN A TTOE/VEV Y Dec. 1', 1970 J. J. KILIAN 3,543,446

BLADE SHARPENER Filed June 21, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR JEEGME J K/L/AA/ Minneapolis, Minn. 55428 Filed June 21, 1968, Ser. No. 739,073 Int. Cl. B24b 9/00 US. CI. 51-80 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A sharpener for knives or similar blades comprising a pair of frusto-conical abrasive wheels having their side walls in contact, one wheel being freely rotatable, the other wheel being driven and having its side wall in frictional driving contact with the side wall of the other wheel, one of the abrasive Wheels being mounted for movement toward and away from the other in a direction normal to a plane commonly tangent to the side walls of the two wheels, the wheels being biased together to maintain frictional drive contact and a proper sharpening bight; means for supporting and guiding the movable wheel toward and away from the other; means for providing lubricant to the grinding surfaces of the wheels; means for absorbing excess lubricant, and means providing a shield for the lubricant absorber and also a stop abutment for blades being sharpened.

This invention relates to sharpeners specifically to knife blade Sharpeners.

The present invention is an improvement upon my prior Pat. Nos. 2,570,690, dated Oct. 9, 1951 and 2,597,- 150, dated May 20, 1952.

My prior patents provided for the driving of one frustoconical sharpening wheel by means of the other through frictional contact and provided for adjustment of one wheel toward the other so that contact would be maintained even though the diameters of the wheel might reduce due to wear.

The present invention in general provides such an arrangement. However, whereas in my two prior constructions each grinding wheel spindle was independently mounted and one wheel and spindle movable along a given axis at an angle to the axis of rotation, in the present invention both grinding wheels are mounted on a common supporting shaft and the spindle mountings for the two wheels are not only slidable along said shaft for wear compensating adjustment, but one wheel is adjustable about the common supporting shaft so that even though the mount for the other grinding wheel might, because of wear, permit the axis of the latter wheel to shift to a different angular position, the other wheel can be similarly adjusted so that the rotational axes of the two grinding wheels can be kept in the same plane and more uniformly and balanced wear of the two grinding wheels will result.

Additionally, whereas in my prior patents, only one of the two wheels was mounted for wear compensating adjustment toward the other wheel, I have provided mounting means herein which provide for adjustment of both Wheels toward a plane commonly tangent to the circumferential face of the wheels where they are in frictional contact. Thus the two wheels are always centered with respect to the drive means, knife stops and oil absorbing pads, and also relative to oiling means.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved yet simply constructed and quite economical means for supplying oil the grinding Wheels, which oil is used in the same manner as that on a conventional oil stone, such as is well known in the sharpening art.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simply constructed yet efiicient combination of knife stop and and more 3,543,446 Patented Dec. 1, 1970 oil absorbent means adpted to be located and maintained closely adjacent the bight formed by the stones where the blade sharpening takes place.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will more fully appear from the following description in connection with the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of my sharpener in a suitable casing;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the sharpening wheels and their supports, a portion of one of the spindle supporting sleeves being shown in section and the upper cover of the housing being removed, a portion of one of the grinding wheel guides being also broken away and in section;

FIG. 3 is a section taken approximately on the line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section taken approximately on the line 44 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional detail taken approximately on the line 55 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional detail taken approxi mately on the line 66 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional detail taken approximately on the line 77 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken approximately on the line 8-8 of FIG. 4.

In the drawings there is shown a housing 10 in the lower portion of which is suitably supported a conventional electric motor not shown. The motor may be controlled by a toggle switch 12.

The upper portion of the housing 10 supports a tray 14, the edge 16 of which is shown in FIG. 1. A main supporting shaft 18 extends across the tray. The left end is secured to a supporting block 20 by bolt 22 and the right end of said shaft is mounted in a sleeve 24 which lies in a rubber cushioning sleeve 26 resting in a semicircular sheet metal saddle 28 which is preferably welded to the side wall 16 of the tray 14. Interposed between the sleeve 24 and the rubber mounting 26 is a sleeve-like cap 30 which houses a spring 32. Said spring being compressed between the end 34 of the cap 30 and a shoulder 36 formed on the sleeve 24 so that said sleeve 24 will be urged toward the left on the main supporting shaft 18 as viewed in FIG. 4. A bolt 38 extends through the cap end 34 and is threaded into a socket 40 formed in the end of the main supporting shaft 18 to provide for adjustment of the compression spring 32.

The sleeve 24 on shaft 18 has a radial pin 42 extending therefrom. The outer end of the pin lies in a horizontal guide 44, the pin 42 being shiftable longitudinally in the guide but being confined thereby transversely of the guide, thereby preventing rotation of the sleeve 24 about the main supporting shaft 18.

Mounted on the sleeve 24 is a spindle supporting sleeve 46 which as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 lies diagonally across said sleeve 24. The spindle sleeve 46 has suitable bearings 48 therein to rotatably support a grinding wheel spindle 50 on whose outer end is a frusto-conical grinding wheel 52. By reason of the shiftability of the sleeve 24 lengthwise of the main supporting shaft 18 and its biasing to the left by the compression spring 32, the entire grinding wheel assembly comprising sleeve 24, spindle sleeve 46, spindle 50 and grinding wheel 52, will be biased to the left as viewed in FIG. 2 or lengthwise of the main supporting shaft 18.

Adjacent the left end of the main supporting shaft 18 is a sleeve 54 secured to said shaft 18 by a set screw 56. Since the main supporting shaft 18 is non-rotationally secured by the bolt 22, the sleeve 54 likewise is held against rotation when the set screw 56 is tightened. However, when screw 56 is loosened, the sleeve 54 can be moved lengthwise of the main supporting shaft 18 and also rotationally thereabout.

Suitably secured to the sleeve 54 as by welding, is a spindle sleeve 57 supporting therein on suitable bearings a rotary spindle 58 having a frusto-conical grinding wheel 60 mounted on an end thereof. The grinding wheels 52 and 60, as shown in FIG. 2, have their circumferential faces at such an angle that they will meet along a line directly beneath a knife blade 62 illustrated in sharpening position in FIG. 2.

The upper end of the spindle 58 as viewed in FIG. 2 is provided with a pulley 64 having a drive belt 66 leading downwardly in the housing to the electric motor not shown, so that the spindle 58 and sharpening wheel 60 will be driven by the motor, the direction of rotation being indicated by the arrow 68. The two grinding wheels 52 and 60 are in contact so that rotation of the wheel '60 will in turn rotate the Wheel 52, this all being brought out in my prior patents.

As the sharpener is used, the grinding wheels 52 and 60 will wear so that their circumferences, about their frustoconical walls, will reduce. The compression spring 32 which bears against the sleeve 24 on the main supporting shaft 18 will constantly bias the grinding wheel 52 toward the wheel 60 so that contact between the wheels will be maintained even though they may reduce somewhat in diameter due to wear. However, if the wheel 52 alone is moved on the main supporting shaft 18, to compensate for wear of the wheels, the commonly tangent plane at the line of contact of the two grinding faces will move to the left as viewed in FIG. 2. This would not only misalign the wheels relative to a bight 70 formed in the housing top 72 to permit insertion of knives between the wheels, but it would also misalign the wheels relative to a blade stop 74 and an oil absorbing spray shield 76. More importantly, however, the compression spring 32 has a limited efiFective expansion axially of the main supporting shaft 18 so that as the grinding wheels 52 and 60 become more worn, the spring 32 could not maintain them in contact with sufficient frictional engagement for the wheel 60 to drive the wheel 52. For that reason the sleeve 54 which supports the spindle sleeve 50, spindle 58 and grinding wheel 60 is adjustable longitudinally of the main supporting shaft 18 and toward the spring biased sleeve 24 for the other spindle and grinding wheel, so that while a small degree of wear of the stones is automatically taken up by the spring, the sleeve 54 can at infrequent intervals be adjusted to the right to compensate for wear and to maintain the compression spring 32 under proper compression for the maintenance of frictional driving contact between the two grinding wheels.

On the other end of the grinding wheel spindle 58 opposite to the driving pulley 64, is a pulley 78 which lies closely against the face 80 of grinding wheel 60 and as shown, is of considerably less diameter than that of the grinding wheel. Suspended from the pulley 78 is a chain 82 which hangs downwardly through an opening 84 in the pan 14 and into an oil reservoir 86 shown with a quantity of oil having a level 88. The reservoir 86 may be provided with bayonet slots 90 to receive suitable pins 92 in a collar 94 which defines the opening 84 in the tray 14. Rotation of the grinding wheel 60 and the pulley 78 which may be made of rubber to create a frictional drag on the chain 82, will cause the chain 82 to pick up oil from the reservoir 86 and carry it upwardly to the pulley 78 where it will run onto the face 80 of the grinding wheel 60. Centrifugal force due to rotation of the grinding wheel 60 will cause the oil to work to the outer circumference of the face 80 and provide oil to the frusto-conical faces of grinding wheels 52 and 60.

The pulley 78 is of considerably less diameter than that of the grinding wheel 60 so that the pulley and the chain 32 will not rotate too fast (insofar as peripheral speed of the pulley is concerned) and oil will not be thrust from the pulley but will be caused to flow through the face of the grinding wheel.

While the chain 82 is not likely to tangle, I provide a rubber-ed. covered guide pin 96 across the collar 94 so that it will lie between the runs of the chain 82 and keep them separated and prevent the chain from becoming tangled.

I previously mentioned the knife stop 74 and oil spray shield 76. As shown in FIG. 7, the knife stop 74 is of suitable material such as a hard fiber and it lies above the spray shield 76 which is of an absorbent fibrous material. The two lie in a sheet metal casing 98 which serves as a guide in which the members 74 and '76 can slide. A spring 100 in the guide 98 urges the knife stop 74 and spray shield 76 against the edges of the sharpening stones, the stone 60 being shown in FIG. 7. The guide 98 is provided with a spring clip 102 which permits it to be clipped on the main supporting shaft 18 in a desirable position.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are illustrative of the drive connections between the grinding wheel spindles and the wheels. In FIG. 5 the spindle 58 is shown located in a hub sleeve 104 which is nonrotatably anchored in the center of the grinding wheel 60. A pin 106 locks the spindle 58 to the hub sleeve 10 4. Likewise, the grinding wheel 52 is non rotatably mounted on a hub sleeve 108 which in turn is mounted on the spindle 50, the spindle and hub sleeve 108 being interconnected by a suitable pin 110.

It should of course be understood that various changes can be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the various parts without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A. blade sharpener including a pair of rotary sharpening units, wherein the improvement comprises, said sharpening units comprising frustums of cones, means supporting said sharpening units for rotation with their circumferential faces in contact, the means supporting one of said sharpening units having power drive means for rotating its respective sharpening unit, the other sharpening unit being rotatable through the circumferential face contact of said units, the means supporting one of said units including mean movable to shift said unit along a line normal to a plane commonly tangent to said circumferential faces at their line of contact, said means for supporting said sharpening units for rotation comprising a rotary spindle for each sharpening unit, a supporting shaft, separate means on said supporting shaft for supporting each spindle thereon at angles to the supporting shaft, and one of said separate supporting means being slidable axially of the shaft.

2. The structure in claim 1 wherein said shaft being rounded in cross section, means supporting said shaft against rotation, one of said separate supporting means comprising a sleeve slidable on said shaft, spring means associated with said sleeve and biasing the sleeve, its spin dle and sharpening unit toward the other sharpening unit, and means connected to said sleeve and maintaining it against rotation about said shaft.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,362,699 11/1944 Kilian 51-80 X 2,597,150 5/1952 Kilian 5180 OTHELL M. SIMPSON, Primary Examiner 

